Prefatory Note.
With or without its interpolations, this is a fragmentary chapter; part of Tswei
Shu's evidence for the formal decline in the segment LY 16-20 (of those five chapters,
three are conspicuously shorter or more irregular than the standard chapter in
the rest of the book). The centerpiece of the LY 18 fragment is 18:5-7, a brilliantly
made argument for serving in office in difficult times. The opponents in this
case are obviously the Jwangdz people. Compare the argument made in 17:4/6 against
an attack from within the Confucian camp (the opposition in that case being
symbolized by the refractory disciple Dz-lu). The Analects is an embattled text
throughout the Tswei Shu layer.

18:5.
No reader has failed to see that this piece and the next two echo aspects
of the typical Jwangdz scene. But tales of Jwang Jou in the Jwangdz associate
him with the reign of Lyang Hwei-wang (died 0320), and thus with the middle
or late 04c. The dilemma for the usual theory of the Analects is what to
make of these Jwangdzianisms in a work attributed to Confucius (died 0479).
A common solution is that they are stray material which has somehow wandered
into the Analects text. The idea that Warring States texts are "open" and
thus available to such outside additions has many adherents, but it is supported
by no evidence of fact or historical probability. (For a summary of the
WS intellectual milieu in its textual aspect, which emphasizes the importance
of intergroup clashes such as this one, see now Brooks Dynamics).
Even the otherwise astute Waley suggests that 18:5-7 are hostile interpolations.
We cannot regard this as a serious proposal, and we have done our best to
ridicule it in the Reflections, page 183 (or see the Reflections
below). The point is that 18:5 in particular, which is almost identical
for most of its length with JZ 4:7, nevertheless ends oppositely,
with the Dauist spokesman (not, as in the Jwangdz original, Confucius) fleeing
from the scene, unable to meet the arguments of his adversary. No competent
reader should miss the import of this difference.

18:7.
This concludes the trio of Jwangdz refutation pieces. The power of the sarcastic
conclusion should not be skipped over; together with the last line of 18:6, it
is one of the high points of Analects rhetoric. Confucius fully acknowledges
the force of the Dauists' complaints about the times. That the times are not right
is not something that the Confucians have been somehow unaware of. But unlike
the cowardly sniveling Dauists, the Confucians show their public spirit, their
sense of social honor, in doing something to put the times right.

We
may add that the Analects appeal, to sacrifice personal notions of personal purity
in order to render urgent assistance to a world in need, is exactly the same appeal
that is made and rejected in the Mencius (MC 4A17). The relation between these
passages is complex, and will be discussed in our forthcoming work on the Mencius.

Reflections.
It may be convenient to repeat here paragraph 4 of the chapter Reflections
(referred to above), which runs as follows:

Waley
(Analects 21) sees 18:5-7 as from "a world hostile to Confucius." We can
follow him, up to a point. We can see the Dauists sneaking up to Confucian headquarters
in the dead of night. We can see them jimmying open a window. We can see them
taking the Analects manuscript out of its drawer in the office desk. We can see
them writing anti-Confucian anecdotes into it. We can hear them chortling as they
vanish into the night. What we can't see is
the scene next morning, where Dz-shvn comes in, opens the book, finds the Dauist
stories, scratches his head, mumbles, Well, yeah, I guess I must have, and calls
the students in to memorize them. We envision another reaction.